Everard's Original Ale variant

[loobie]

Brewday: Friday, March 28

Based on recipes from around the net (including http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=49453 ), originating from Graham Wheeler's recipe (which I've never seen) for Everard's Original Ale.

For what, due to horrendous trub losses, ended up as a 22 liter recipe, I used:

4730 g Maris Otter (88%)
490 g Crystal 120 EBC (9%)
170 g Really rather frightened wheat (3%)
44 g Challenger 6.66% (first wort hop)
16 g Fuggles 4.77% (10 min)
?? g East Kent Goldings (dry hop for x days)
WLP002 yeast from a 2 liter starter (decanted before adding)

Mashed at 67 degrees, falling 3.7 degrees (too much!) over the 90 minute mash duration.
Mash pH: 5.3 (adjusted using lactic acid)

Batch sparged

Boil volume: 35 l
Boil gravity: 1040
Boil time: 90 minutes

No finings

OG: 1050

Today, five days on, the fermentation has died down. Time to transfer to secondary in a few days.

Suggestions for dry hop quantities/durations are welcome! My only dry hopping experience has been a pale ale which was dry hopped with 2 grams East Kent Goldings per liter for three days, which had no detectable effect apart from improving head retention.

After leaving the Scaredywheat Hills and the Maris Otter plains, Tiny Car starts the ascent of Mount Crystal.

Home-made polystyrene+FV mash tun and lids.

Doughing in.

Mashing.

Runoff into kettle.

Just reaching a boil.

This fellow, Carabus, came in through the door kept open during the boil. He didn't say much, but I appreciated the company.

Low-tech method of ensuring the chiller output tube stays in the sink.

Second cooling stage: Once the immersion chiller output runs fairly cold, it is fed into the cooling tub.

OG check: 1050 (temperature corrected).

Transferring to fermentation vessel. Surprisingly dark wort.

Trub filter clogged several times, leaving me with just 22 liters in the FV.

Finished cleaning up -- time to relax.

Thanks for reading -- feel free to share your East Kent Goldings dry hop experience!

 

[troutrunner]

Thanks for sharing, it's nice to see others are using basic equipment as well as me, got to start somewhere

I have, for a mash tun made from a large "Coleman cool box" and find it very efficient, drop the hot water in at about 75c, drops to just over 66c and holds for a full 90mins. I batch sparge twice for fifteen minutes, water at 72c for these two dropping to 66c. Works well for me

 

[loobie]

Thanks, Gold-Brahma. I like my simple setup. I'm not really attracted to pumps and big shinies (yet) :-D My main rule is that I want to be able to clean everything without having to use harsh chemicals.

In more recent brews I've experienced mash temperature drops of 1.5 degrees C over 60 minutes (18 degree ambient temp). Still a tad too much IMHO.

Ended up dry-hopping this for 5 days with 1.3 grams of East Kent Goldings 6.66% per liter (for a total of 28 g). No discernible effect, except for the tiniest bit of hop on the nose.

My "clone" doesn't have the metallic taste of the Everard's Original Ale (lack of sulphates?), but is a very enjoyable pint with a nice head and a decent bit of fruitiness from the fairly high fermentation temps (22 deg wort temperature, 20 deg ambient, if I recall correctly). It's one of the best brews I've done.

After five weeks in the bottle: Not entirely clear, but then I didn't use any finings.

 

[Duxuk]

I once visited a freind at Loughborough University and was challenged to drink a gallon of everards original, a task which had never been achieved. I failed but was potally tissed. Can't remember what it tasted like, though.:drunk: